Palletized loads are commonly used to transport product. Typically, the product is placed on a pallet that rests on the ground and the pallet is moved from one location to another using a forklift.
To provide greater flexibility in palletizing, slipsheet palletizing has been proposed where a thin sheet of material is interposed between adjacent units of product that are stacked one on top of the other. To remove the top unit, a modified forklift or lift truck having a gripping device is used. The gripping device can grasp an edge of the slipsheet and pull the slipsheet including the product disposed thereon onto the forklift or lift truck.
While use of a forklift and palletized loads may be suitable for certain products at some stages during the distribution process such as in a large warehouse, they are not particularly well-suited to accomplish many downstream processes. For example, a large forklift is not well-suited where greater flexibility may be important such as in re-stocking store displays from an on-site storage location. Additionally, forklifts and lift trucks tend to be relatively large and may be somewhat unsuitable for use at many retail locations.